Chapter 22 – Midterms (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Ever since long ago, I had been the type who didn’t get motion sickness.

Even the time I happened to go out on a fishing boat by chance, I had simply enjoyed the outing on the water while taking in the cool salt-heavy sea breeze. Even the sailors themselves had clicked their tongues at the sight.

Maybe because of that, after we warped to Scopuli Island through the gate, I was the only one who looked even remotely all right.

Chloe and Speed Weapon were each bent over a tree, emptying their stomachs, and even Rachel, of all people, had gone pale and was staggering while holding her forehead.

I glanced sideways at Leon beside me. Looking at his complexion, he seemed a little pale too, though it looked like he was holding himself together with sheer willpower, maybe because he was the team leader.

“…Geom-ma, looks like you’re fine.”

“I don’t really get motion sickness.”

“…Haha, I don’t think this is really just a motion-sickness issue.”

While the others settled their upset stomachs, I moved my gaze and surveyed the surroundings.

A blue horizon spread out before my eyes, so open it almost felt refreshing. Birds chirped, and the salty smell of the sea brushed the tip of my nose on the wind.

The sparse tropical trees at the edge of my vision and the stone statues that looked like moai gave the place a mysterious atmosphere.

After spending about five minutes looking around, my teammates seemed to have gotten their insides somewhat back in order and gathered around Leon, the team leader. After brushing his golden hair back once, Leon calmly briefed the plan.

“Just like we decided in the meeting, Chloe, go first toward the one o’clock direction and scout ahead. If you find a group of mermen, identify their location and report back to me.”

Chloe gave a small nod. Leon turned his eyes toward Rachel and continued explaining.

“Rachel, you’ll take the front of the formation, right? Since your weapon is a spear, you have the longest reach. Don’t overdo it. Depending on the situation, I’ll support you.”

Rachel lifted the Fangtian Huaji she’d been using like a walking stick back onto her shoulder and made an okay sign with her fingers. It seemed like she’d recovered somewhat.

“Speed Weapon, as much as possible, prioritize Rachel when using support-type blessings. And Geom-ma, you stay in the rear and watch for any unexpected enemies.”

Maybe his motion sickness still hadn’t passed, because Speed Weapon only covered his mouth and gave a silent nod. His complexion stirred up a pang of pity.

My eyes flicked toward Leon.

He was carrying out the command role so skillfully it was hard to believe we were the same age. The sense of déjà vu from watching him was exactly the same as the protagonist Leon I had played.

“All right, then let’s begin!”

At Leon’s words, the team members all picked up their weapons and started moving busily. Chloe, as the advance scout, shot forward with a burst of speed. She was so fast that she vanished from sight almost immediately.

Felt like she was gotten even faster.

We followed along behind her and kept walking. It was hot and humid, probably because we were in a tropical region. My clothes were quickly soaked with sweat. I loosened the tie constricting my neck.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one feeling the heat, because Speed Weapon was hanging limply with his tongue out like an overheated dog, and Rachel was fanning herself sharply in irritation.

Only Leon kept walking with one hand resting on the hilt of his sword, his posture still perfectly composed. I asked him.

“Aren’t you hot?”

“Of course I am.”

Leon answered with a bright smile.

“But if something happens, it’s my role to be prepared for it. At the very least, the team leader can’t let his guard down.”

“…Right.”

Faced with words and actions so perfectly suited to the protagonist role, I couldn’t think of anything to say back. He was reassuring in the extreme, but honestly, not very interesting. Letting out a short sigh, I looked forward again.

The tropical forest that had once been scattered here and there had now grown so thick that it blocked both sides of my vision.

The ground too was getting muddier and muddier, so there had to be wetlands nearby. The footprints of the five members of our team were stamped into the sticky road like seals.

A strange atmosphere slowly brought a feeling of unease over me. I slid a hand to my waist. The cool touch of the sashimi knife wrapped in its sheath made me feel noticeably better.

* * *

After we had walked for quite a while, we saw Chloe coming back toward us from far off. The sight of her springing from branch to branch looked almost like the kind of ninja you only saw in comics.

When she reached us, after taking one deep breath, she reported.

“There is a large pool about 500 meters ahead, and around it there’s a group of roughly fifty mermen.”

“Fifty… That’s more than I expected.”

Leon stroked his chin and fell into thought. Even if they were only D-rank mermen, the weaker sort, a count of fifty was enough to be a burden.

Of course, with this group, taking down fifty or even a hundred mermen wouldn’t be difficult, but the danger still existed.

When exterminating monster groups, the common strategy was to strike and withdraw. You couldn’t rule out the possibility that there might be another group hiding somewhere nearby.

Still, if they could take down that many at once, first place would practically be guaranteed. Right now, Leon was probably weighing two choices in his head.

Would he shoulder the risk, or go around safely? The decision belonged to him as the leader.

Perhaps having finished thinking, Leon hardened his expression and turned his eyes to Rachel.

“Rachel, can you do it?”

“Of course! Even if a hundred of those fish-heads came at me, I’d be totally fine!”

She threw back her shoulders and thumped her chest with a clenched fist as if telling him to leave it all to her. Chloe shot Rachel a displeased glance.

At that bold answer, Leon smiled as if satisfied and said to Speed Weapon:

“As much as possible, put all your buffs and healing on Rachel or Chloe. I’ll be fine.”

Leon immediately added to me.

“Geom-ma, stick to the plan and watch the rear in case of a surprise attack.”

I nodded easily in agreement.

There was no honey sweeter than this. There had been moments when I regretted getting tangled up with Leon, but seeing him act as such a solid pillar suddenly made me think I’d done well to join this group.

But ever since a little while ago, a faint tremor had been sweeping across my whole body. The fierce sensation, like needles pricking at my skin, kept bothering me.

Maybe I was the only one feeling it, because there wasn’t a trace of tension or unease on the other group members’ faces. Even Leon showed no change in expression, as if he felt nothing at all.

Swallowing, I followed behind the others.

Soon we arrived at our destination, and from twenty meters away I caught sight of the mermen surrounding the large pool.

‘Ugh, fuck.’

The moment I saw them, the stomach that had been fine even after the warp lurched. It was already bad enough that they were fish with two legs.

On top of that, their heads happened to look disturbingly similar to the salmon I’d eaten for breakfast. It felt like merely looking at them was enough to inflict internal damage. My body shuddered with nausea.

Leon quietly jerked his chin toward Rachel. She turned her gaze to me, flashed a smiling glance with her eyes, then sent her blond twin tails flying as she charged at the group of roughly thirty mermen.

Craack!

Leg strength worthy of a power build. The soggy ground caved in under Rachel’s step. With a spirited shout, she swung the Fangtian Huaji mightily.

With a gruesome crunch of the spear blade catching on bone, three mermen were split sideways in a single exchange.

Only then did the mermen notice us, their gills flapping as they all charged toward our group.

It was a strange sensation I’d never felt before. But except for me, the other group members followed behind Rachel as if they were used to it.

Speed Weapon brought the recorder hanging from his neck to his lips and began to play. The tone, well… I knew nothing about music, but it didn’t seem like a particularly good melody. It reminded me of a distorted version of the Titanic theme I’d once heard by chance.

At his performance, the corners of Rachel’s mouth stretched long, and she swept through the mermen with fiercer spear swings than before.

Krrrk.

The sound of the spear blade striking bone rang out.

Whenever the air tore with a booming sound, split fish heads flew into the air.

‘Insane.’

At the same time she swung, blood sprayed off the spear blade with a splatter.

Watching Rachel’s martial display, my mouth naturally fell open. Wherever her movements ended, mermen split in half opened a path for her.

Standing beside Rachel, Chloe drove her Japanese sword precisely into the gills of three mermen.

Stab. Stab. Stab.

The fish eyes turned murky all at once. Even amid that, Chloe’s swordplay was swifter and more precise than before.

Chloe quickly yanked out the embedded sword, leaped high, and unleashed a rapid barrage from midair. The shadow of her blade drove down into the group of mermen. Sticky fountains of blood erupted and splattered everywhere.

The two beautiful girls slaughtered mermen as if neither intended to lose to the other. Whenever their eyes met, sparks seemed to fly from them.

Watching them, Leon drew his sword about halfway, then slid it back in and shrugged awkwardly. There was no timing for him to step in.

“…They’re amazing.”

“Seriously. I didn’t expect it to be this much. Looks like I worried for nothing.”

When I muttered that, Leon answered with a faint laugh.

At some point, Leon and I had ended up standing there with our arms folded, watching the salmon-disassembly show the two girls were putting on.

Looking at Speed Weapon, immersed between the two of them with his eyes closed as he kept blowing little peep, peep notes on the recorder, a laugh slipped out of me. I knew I wasn’t supposed to laugh at someone doing his best, but it was just funny.

After a few minutes passed like that, the once numerous mermen had turned into dead fish, giving off a fishy stench.

The blood seeping out between the cold corpses formed a small stream and trickled toward the pool. The sight felt a little eerie, and my shoulders twitched slightly. I blinked while looking at the corpses, then finally shifted my gaze ahead.

Rachel wiped the sweat from her forehead with a refreshed expression, while Chloe quietly gathered up the dorsal fins of the mermen. Speed Weapon too looked refreshed, as if he was satisfied with his own performance.

As tasteless as it was, the scoring of the exam was based on the number of dorsal fins collected, so Leon moved over to help Chloe with the cleanup.

Honestly, I hadn’t done anything at all. Feeling vaguely dissatisfied, I clicked my tongue briefly.

The team members finished gathering the fins in no time and regrouped. The number of mermen we’d taken down was forty-eight. That result would be guaranteed to place us in the top three at the very least. After counting the fins carefully, Leon spoke.

“If we just take down a few more mermen we run into on the way back, that should be enough.”

And just as we were about to leave the place with light steps.

A shiver ran across my body at the presence I felt from behind.

At the exact moment my head turned, I heard the sharp sound of something being sliced.

Blood sprayed right in front of my eyes. Leon’s side was cut open as if gouged out, and he spat blood as he collapsed forward. At the sudden turn of events, all of my teammates’ eyes widened in shock.

“!”

A faint resonance rang near my ears. My gaze instinctively chased the source of the sound.

“Th-that thing!”

Speed Weapon’s body trembled like a convulsion.

Above the swamp where we had just been standing, a figure slowly emerged.

Its frame resembled a human’s, but its entire body was covered in scales like armor. Its pupils were long and vertically split like a serpent’s, and webs stretched between its fingers and toes.

A mermaid demonoid was standing atop the swamp now dyed red.

To think the source of that chilling unease had been a demonoid. Naturally, nothing like this had happened during the game. Then again, I had never been supposed to end up on Leon’s team in the first place.

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud.

Before the shock had even settled, a heavy booming that shook the ground roared through the trees.

Even with the sudden appearance of the mermaid already putting us in a hopeless situation, what followed was a horde of mermen, easily close to a hundred, that blocked off our route of escape.

Speed Weapon fell backward on his ass, while even Rachel and Chloe could do nothing but open and close their lips in a state of disbelief. Leon was coughing up blood and dragging in rough breaths.

I was the only one still in my right mind.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

I grabbed the shoulders of the stunned Chloe and shook her back to her senses.

“Chloe, somehow get to one of the other teams nearby and call for help. Now.”

Chloe jerked and nodded in a daze.

Immediately after that, I turned and spoke to Rachel and Speed Weapon in the calmest tone I could manage.

“Speed Weapon, dump every healing-type blessing you’ve got into Leon. And Rachel, don’t let those fish bastards get anywhere near Leon. No matter what.”

After saying that, I turned my back and headed toward the swamp.

“The trash mobs are yours.”

“G-Geom-ma, don’t tell me you…”

“Hey, you crazy bastard!?”

Rachel’s and Speed Weapon’s voices were shaking.

“Big game is my specialty.”

Srrrng.